While the Hinchey-Rohrabacher Amendment failed again, it picked up some new votes. Here's the take from MPP:

An amendment to stop the U.S. Justice Department from arresting medical marijuana patients in the 11 states where medical marijuana is legal received a record vote on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives today. Although the measure failed to pass, 163-259, medical marijuana advocates hailed the record vote as the result of a growing groundswell of support for medical marijuana from across the political spectrum. Last summer, the amendment received 161 votes, which was the previous record until today's vote.

The improvement was due to Republican "yes" votes, which increased from 15 last year to 18 this year.

"Support for medical marijuana has hit yet another high-water mark in Congress, 11 states have legalized medical marijuana in 11 years, and the latest national poll shows that an astounding 78 percent of voters want to see medical marijuana legal," said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) in Washington, D.C. "It's hard to imagine a scenario where Congress will not pass our medical marijuana legislation by, say, 2009.

We're gaining votes each time the bill comes up for vote. We even gained some in the middle of the election season, which indicates we'll get even more next year. Let's continue keep up the pressure on this good piece of legislation.